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Trade with Greece
53
although Greek shipown-
ers have (also) "stopped
engines" for the time
being, they retain their
impressive strength,
controlling 15% of
global tonnage.
A rather revealing
Financial Times
arti-
cle
1
estimates that
Greek shipping will
emerge stronger from the
crisis, in contrast to the
German shipping sector (obvi-
ously selected by the article's author
for comparison purposes). The article notes
that “most shipowners in Greece –home to the
world’s second-largest fleet after Japan– look set
to emerge from the global
shipping crisis in a
strong and competitive
position; many of
Germany’s ship-own-
ing funds, however,
are facing bankruptcy”.
The article also
stresses that the main
differences between
the two shipping sectors
lie in the family structure of
Greek companies, as well as
their strong capital base. “Greek
shipowners ... [seem] willing to
invest at apparently unfavourable times and
owning a wide variety of ships. Most German
shipping companies are cautious and rely heavily
It is well-known that as
a result of the 2008
financial crisis, which
turned (also) into a ship-
ping crisis, the interna-
tional shipping sector is
fraught with major
problems, to which
there seems to be no
end.
By Leonidas Tsaoulas
It is estimated
that in almost
four years the world's
80 largest listed shipping compa-
nies saw their value decrease
by nearly US$100
billion.
“
”
1
Robert Wright, “German shipowners left in Greek wake,
Financial Times,
March 13, 2012.